Actually those contracts, in most states, like New Jersey, are illegal
Since the taxpayers never agreed to them in the first place
Depending on the state, this is doable
All the contract has is an agreement between the unions (workers) and some politician (but not the taxpayers)
It can be weird like that in states like New Jersey
In New Jersey they have a ballot initiative to “save the public workers pension” basically asking to tax the state even more to death to preserve the pension. Yes, they need our permission to fund it and they never had it.
To me the pension is null and void. If they want to collect, they need to go after the politicians who created it and sue their estates. Good luck with that
“Since the taxpayers never agreed to them in the first place”
Do the taxpayers have to agree to every contract the government signs?